The City Council voted 9-0 Tuesday to confirm Shon Barnes as Seattle’s new Chief of Police. He has served as interim chief since February.
Barnes, 50, comes to Seattle from Madison, Wis., where he had served as police chief since February 2021. He began his 24-year law enforcement career as a patrol officer in Greensboro, N.C., and also worked as a captain in Greensboro, deputy chief in Salisbury, N.C. and director of training and professional development for Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability. Along the way, he earned a master’s degree in criminal justice and a doctorate in leadership studies.
Mayor Bruce Harrell chose Barnes from a pool of 57 applicants.
“Our office believes in Chief Barnes’ vision for the department to be compassionate guardians, trusted partners and committed problem solvers,” wrote mayoral spokesperson Callie Craighead in a statement to Cascade PBS. “We continue to see progress towards a safer city for all with reported crime going down and a significant increase in police hiring and are looking forward to Chief Barnes’ building on that momentum once he is confirmed.”
Barnes takes the helm of a department still rebuilding after the post-2020 exodus of officers and attempting to satisfy the final reform requirements following more than a decade of federal oversight in response to excessive use of force.
"This is where I want to end my career," Barnes said after Tuesday's confirmation vote. "This is where I want to be. I want to be a part of that chapter, that story that will be written about how the City of Seattle and Seattle Police Department became a national model for policing."
Councilmembers kept their pre-vote discussion brief and positive, with most sharing optimism for Barnes’s tenure as SPD’s leader.
“We needed an outside candidate,” said Councilmember Bob Kettle who leads the Public Safety Committee. “We needed someone with that different perspective to come lead our department. … We have a nominee committed to reform.”
Though Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck also struck a positive note about Barnes, she emphasized the work she wants SPD under his leadership.
“I will be supporting this appointment today with an understanding that we have a lot of work to do to take on meaningful accountability and also to keep our residents safe from the actions of the Trump administration,” Rinck said.
Barnes is now leading a much larger department in a much larger city. Madison has about 280,000 residents and employs about 500 sworn officers, compared to Seattle’s nearly 800,000 residents and 1,000 sworn officers. He will be paid a $361,862 annual salary.
Officer hiring and retention is Barnes’ top priority.
Like most U.S. cities, Seattle saw hundreds of officers quit or retire in the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and COVID-19 pandemic. SPD went from about 1,300 sworn officers in 2019 to fewer than 1,000, with experienced officers quitting faster than new ones could be hired.
That tide has slowly turned — thanks in part to increases in officer pay and hiring bonuses, among other recruitment efforts — and, according to Barnes, the department has hired 87 new officers in 2025 for a net gain of 47, compared to just one in 2024.
That progress comes as the city grapples with a projected budget deficit of around $250 million, which could be exacerbated by additional cuts in federal grants. During a June 24 confirmation hearing, Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck asked Barnes about officer salary and recruitment spending in light of the likely need for budget cuts.
Barnes said he would look elsewhere in the department budget for savings. “I do not want to turn back the hands of time on our recruiting and the officers we’re bringing in,” he told Rinck. Barnes said he’d set a goal of hiring 200 officers by the end of 2025.
The new chief wants to rebuild the department’s relationship with the communities it polices, telling Councilmembers at the confirmation hearing that “Community safety must be defined with our community. I’m firm in my belief that true public safety happens when everyday people work alongside those of us inside the system to determine how to define, implement and achieve public safety.”
Barnes said he expects officers to spend time in the neighborhoods within their precincts when not responding to emergency calls. “Proximity is essential to effective problem-solving,” said Barnes in his written response to questions raised during the Council confirmation process. “When we are not present, we miss important contextual details and, more critically, we miss opportunities to connect with the people we serve.”
Seattle has been working to reform its accountability systems for more than a decade under the watch of a federal judge. The city has made progress on that front, in part through the creation of the Office of Inspector General for Public Safety, Office of Police and Community Police Commission. But Judge James L. Robart has said the department must do more on accountability as well as crowd-control tactics to fully satisfy the requirements of the DOJ’s consent decree.
In his stint at the Chicago Civilian Office of Police Accountability, Barnes was responsible for overseeing the development of accountability training programs to address investigation techniques, community engagement and officer policies and practices.
As part of his confirmation packet, Barnes wrote: “I firmly support police accountability. The civilian oversight of police actions, particularly when investigations are carried out by qualified, trained, and impartial bodies, ensure that such inquiries are both thorough and timely. Throughout my career, I have actively advocated for stronger civilian oversight mechanisms.”
Barnes hedged on the question of officer punishment, however.
“It’s also important to fully define what ‘accountability’ means,” he wrote. “For many people, police accountability hinges on the actions taken to punish officers who fail to follow proper procedures and strict adherence to the law. I agree that there is a place for a punitive response, under certain circumstances. I also believe that true police accountability begins long before any incidents arise that draw scrutiny from oversight bodies.”
Barnes explained that proactive measures include equipping officers with “the essential tools, training, teamwork, technology, and time they need to perform their duties effectively and appropriately.”
In addition, Barnes supports the return of sworn SPD officers filling “school resource officer” positions in Seattle Public Schools, and is in favor of partnerships with community violence interrupters and mental-health alternative 911 responders.
When it comes to crowd control, Barnes said the department should take a “less is more” approach, acknowledging that police dressed in tactical gear and standing in formation can be a “flashpoint for protestors” and their use should be minimized where possible.
He wants SPD to communicate more with community members before, during and after protests; provide additional training for officers on crowd control; and have officers use the “least amount of force necessary and to avoid escalation whenever possible,” noting that the priority is “always the safety of people over property.”
SPD recently came under fire from Seattle’s LGBTQ+ community for its response to counter-protestors during an evangelical Christian anti-trans, anti-abortion event on Capitol Hill.
Craighead, the mayoral spokesperson, said Barnes’ nearly 100 days as interim chief is consistent with the tenures of other department heads. She explained that Harrell waits for several months to send confirmation paperwork to the City Council to allow department leaders to “learn the role and begin building relationships with key stakeholders.”
There is no difference in the powers of or pay for an interim chief versus a confirmed chief.
Barnes is Seattle’s 10th chief of police since 2009, including those who served only in an interim role.
Adrian Diaz led as interim chief from September 2020 to September 2022, then in the permanent role until December 2024. Diaz was fired after an internal investigation found that he’d hired and directly supervised a romantic partner and attempted to cover it up. Diaz had been on paid leave since late October, at which point former King County Sheriff Sue Rahr stepped in as interim SPD chief.
His predecessor Carmen Best was interim chief from January 2018 to August 2018, then led as confirmed chief until resigning in September 2020 in the wake of the department’s handling of Black Lives Matter protests.
Kathy O’Toole led the Seattle police from June 2013 until the end of 2017.
Harry Bailey came out of retirement from SPD to serve as interim chief from January 2013 until O’Toole took over. Jim Pugel came before him, serving as interim chief from April 2013 to January 2014.
Both chiefs were filling in after former chief John Diaz resigned amid the use-of-force cases that brought about the DOJ investigation. Diaz was promoted to the role in May 2009.
Gil Kerlikowske was the last long-serving chief of police, leading the department from July 2000 through March 2009 when he left to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
